United Airlines launched its Cebu-Tokyo/Narita to service, with gate events in Tokyo and Cebu for passengers traveling on the inaugural flight between the two cities.
The first outbound flight from Cebu was marked at Mactan-Cebu International Airport with a special ceremony at the departure gate on Oct. 28, 2024.
Customers, guests, United executives, staff and crew were joined by local dignitaries in a ribbon cutting ceremony marking the departure of the first flight.
The new service departs Cebu at 9:30 a.m. and arrives in Tokyo/Narita at 3:15 p.m. the same day. The return flight from Tokyo/Narita to Cebu departs at 5:30 p.m. and arrives on Cebu at 10:05 p.m.
United operates the flight with a 737-800 with 166 seats, 16 of which are in business class.
The new daily nonstop service provides greater choice for customers in the Philippines to travel to Tokyo and with United connections, to the United States.
United is the only US carrier to operate from Cebu, connecting customers from the Visayas and Mindanao regions to Japan via Tokyo/Narita and to more than 200 destinations across the United States through its hubs at Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark and San Francisco.
“This new flight has been welcomed by our customers and the travel community across the Philippines. We are excited to offer even greater travel choice to our customers in the Philippines, with a one-stop connection, via Tokyo/Narita, to destinations in the United States and our unrivaled network of onward connections to destinations across the Americas, including our hub in Newark with fast easy access to Manhattan.”, said Walter Dias, director for Asia Pacific at United Airlines.
“We very much look forward to flying customers from Japan and the US to Cebu, one of the leading beach resorts in Asia, benefitting tourism and supporting the local economy,” said Dias.
United Airlines has more than 40 years of history in the Philippines since 1982 and operates 16 nonstop weekly flights to Guam, Palau and San Francisco.
The direct non-stop Manila-San Francisco service positions United as the only US airline connecting Manila and the continental US. United’s weekly flight frequency is scheduled to increase from 16 to 23 with the introduction of its Cebu-Tokyo Narita flight service on Oct. 28, 2024.
